How To Frame With Stained Glass Zinc Came

Stained Glass Zinc Frame

A stained glass zinc came frame is a good option for the edges of your panel. This is for a couple of reasons. If you have a heavier panel that needs a bit of strength, or want a definite border for artistic reasons, then a stained glass zinc frame is your answer.

This stained glass tutorial shows you how to measure, cut and solder a mitred zinc came frame together for a professional look. Your glasswork is worth it!

What You Need

Tools and materials needed for stained glass zinc framing

Essential: 60/40 solder, flux, soldering iron and stand, wet sponge, Q-tips or cheap brush to apply the flux, your panel, cork or soft wood board, fine felt tip pen, push pins to hold the zinc came in place, zinc came, set square, metal file and a came saw or fine-toothed hack saw. There are special saws for this, including electric ones. You don’t need to buy anything expensive at this stage. Just move the blade of your hack saw down a bit and it will work fine.

Optional: mitre box.

A Word About Stained Glass Zinc

Zinc came comes in several different widths. The wider it is, the stronger it is. You can buy it with H or U profiles. The U shape looks nicer for framing but you can use H zinc for framing.
If your panel is being placed in a wooden frame there is no advantage to using zinc over lead. The wooden frame gives the strength. I use lead for the edges when I’m framing in wood as it’s cheaper and easier to use.

How To Make A Stained Glass Zinc Frame

First of all you need to cut the zinc came to fit the panel. Mitered edges (those cut on a 45 degree angle) are best, otherwise you have an ugly view down the inside of the zinc came at each corner.

1. Measuring the zinc came

Saw off a 2″ piece of zinc to use as a marker

Place this marker over the vertical edge of your panel so that the edge glass butts up to the heart of the zinc

Stain glass – how to measure the length for zinc came

Giving yourself a bit of extra length on the left hand side, draw two lines down from the marker on to the horizonal came

Draw another line diagonally across. This gives you the 45 degree angle

Mark the other corner in the same fashion

2. Cutting the zinc came

Try to do this as accurately as you can. Some people use a mitre box to cut the angles. By all means purchase one of these if you think it will help.

How to cut zinc came for a mitered frame

Place the blade over the cut line and saw straight down. It takes a bit of time and effort!

Don’t push too hard, as you might squash the zinc

File the ends to tidy them up

Repeat 1. and 2. above for three sides

Zinc came mitered corners cut to the correct length

3. Measuring the final edge

Pin your three edges in with the push pins, checking that they’re at right angles

Balance your final length of zinc over the top and mark the 45 degree angle as in 1. above. The marks in the photo looks ‘off’ because of camera distortion, so look at the pink lines below

Cut the remaining two angles

Pin the final came in place, checking that the stain glass panel is square

Cutting final zinc came to the correct length

4. How To Solder The Zinc Came Frame

Zinc came needs a bit more solder than lead came so make sure you’re a bit more generous with it.

Stained glass zinc also prefers fresh flux. Apply flux one joint at a time rather than all at once.

Now each edge join needs to be soldered neatly to the zinc.

Work your way around the edges, soldering each join to the zinc came. This ensures that everything stays in place.

With the chisel tip of your iron at right angles to the stain glass, melt off a small bit of solder on to the seam

Keeping your tip at the same angle, slowly melt the solder until it merges with the seam and sticks to the zinc frame

Be aware that zinc needs a bit more heat applied than copper foil or lead

Work your way around the panel until each join is soldered to the frame

Soldering seams to zinc came

Next solder each corner.

To do this melt a blob of solder over the join and melt the stain glass solder with the flat face of your iron tip on the solder. See the video below if you’re unsure about this.

TOP TIP: To create a neat solder join you can stick masking tape on each side of the join before fluxing and soldering. Make sure it’s stuck down firmly first. This contains the solder for a professional finish and prevents a blobby mess!

Turn over and repeat the soldering on the other side.

Stain glass panel with mitred stained glass zinc frame

Helpful Resources For Stained Glass Zinc

This is a useful 3 minute video showing exactly what I’ve been describing, including soldering a corner join. Start watching at 1min 20 seconds if you’re in a rush, as it repeats the same steps for each corner.

http://everythingstainedglass.com/stain-glass-how-tohttp://everythingstainedglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/stain-glass-how-to-2.jpghttp://everythingstainedglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/stain-glass-how-to-2-150x150.jpg2016-11-01T07:44:32+00:00Milly FrancesLead Came ConstructionStained Glass TutorialsFraming and Hanging,Lead and ZincStained Glass Zinc Frame
A stained glass zinc came frame is a good option for the edges of your panel. This is for a couple of reasons. If you have a heavier panel that needs a bit of strength, or want a definite border for artistic reasons, then a stained...Milly FrancesMillyFrancesmillyfrances@gmail.comAdministratorEverything Stained Glass

4 Comments Already

I had not done a project for several months and needed a refresher course. I checked on line for information to help me get through this project. Your site is the very best I have come across and thank you sincerely for all the great information. You have covered every detail in a great way to understand. I am ready to frame and needed to know how to cut my corners for the came. You detailed it perfectly. Could not tell you how much I appreciate the efforts you took in sharing your knowledge.

Yasmin-May 31st, 2017 at 9:58 pmnone
Comment author #617 on How To Frame With Stained Glass Zinc Came by Everything Stained Glass

Thank you for sharing your expertise in such easy and detailed way for beginners like me and hopefully you could answer my question, I rescued from the trash a panel framed with lead came H shaped and would like to frame it with zinc came to hang it on my wall but I don’t know if lead came has to be removed and replaced or if zinc came can be added to existing lead frame and what shape would be more appropriate to do it.
Thank you.

Milly Frances-June 21st, 2017 at 9:06 amnone
Comment author #662 on How To Frame With Stained Glass Zinc Came by Everything Stained Glass

You’ll have to remove the zinc came frame first (use gravity to help by tipping the panel when you unsolder the joints) and either re-frame with U shaped zinc or lead came. If the panel is large you might want to keep the H lead came and frame it in wood. Hope that helps Yasmin.

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About Me

I'm Milly Frances and I've been working with stained glass for over - yikes! - 20 years now, both as a professional artist and as a trained teacher. I also play 5-a side football (badly).
My biggest love is working alongside people early in their stained glass journey and giving them the confidence to find their own artistic direction.

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